To improve practice and advance theory in service operations, service innovation and development I completed my PhD in business and service operations through insider action research methodology. For my doctoral thesis I investigated the barriers and enablers of new service development in the publicly funded university and how barriers might be overcome and enablers developed. … Read more Service Research

The European Powerlifting Championship took place in Dublin, from 21 to 23 September. It was a fantastic event, with over one hundred athletes from all over Europe competing in squat, bench press and deadlift. The age categories ranged from 14 to 74 years of age. I competed in four categories, squat and deadlift both raw … Read more Health & Fitness

Here is an interesting article from the New York Times (24 December 2018), describing a real life experiment:

A growing number of businesses are encouraging their employees to work when their bodies are most awake

A few years ago, scientists conducted a real-world experiment at a ThyssenKrupp steel factory in Germany. They assigned the day shift to early risers and the late shift to night owls.

Soon the steel workers, many of whom had been skeptical at the outset, were getting an extra hour of sleep on work nights. By simply aligning work schedules with people’s internal clocks, the researchers had helped people get more and better rest.

“They got 16 percent more sleep, almost a full night’s length over the course of the week,” said Till Roenneberg, a chronobiologist at Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, who headed the study. “That is enormous.”

In recent years, American educators have been paying increased attention to their students’ sleep needs, with growing debate about delaying school start times. Now a number of businesses are following suit, encouraging their employees to work when their bodies are most awake.

“It’s a huge financial burden not to sleep properly,” Dr. Roenneberg said. “The estimates go toward 1 percent of gross national product,” both in the United States and Germany.

Emerging science reveals that each of us has an optimal time to fall asleep and wake up, a personalized biological rhythm known as a “chronotype.” When you don’t sleep at the time your body wants to sleep — your so-called biological night — you don’t sleep as well or as long, setting the stage not only for fatigue, poor work performance and errors but also health problems ranging from heart disease and obesity to anxiety and depression.

A full 80 percent of people have work schedules that clash with their internal clocks, said Céline Vetter, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and director of the university’s circadian and sleep epidemiology lab. “The problem is huge,” Dr. Vetter said. “If we consider your individual chronotype and your work hours, the chances are very high that there’s quite a bit of misalignment.”

Put it this way: If you rely on an alarm clock to wake up, you’re out of sync with your own biology.

Studies on workers in the call center of a mobile phone company, a packaging manufacturer and an oil transportation company show that these employees are more stressed and may experience more work-related discomfort and pain. It’s the mismatch — not the hours themselves — that matters. A 2015 Harvard Medical School study found that for night owls, working during the day increases diabetes risk.

The effects of strength training on mental wellbeing and the aging process

For the past three years, I have been balancing my love for powerlifting with my managerial and scholarly role in Trinity College.

Powerlifting is a form of competitive weightlifting in which athletes attempt three types of lift in a set sequence, squat, bench press and deadlift. The goal is to get the highest possible total between the three lifts. Competing in powerlifting requires meticulous planning, training, and body awareness. I have to balance training time with work time and take care of my body by getting proper nutrition and adequate sleep.

Powerlifters have described the relaxation aspect of this sport, the reduction of anger and the emotional wellbeing. I agree with them. No matter how much is going on in my life, when I am preparing for a big lift there is this intense concentration with one single purpose – to get that weight of the ground. This is a quiet and meditative moment, I notice nothing else but the weight and how my muscles work together to lift it.

What does it do for me?

I think that powerlifting enables me to manage the other aspects of my life – in particular the combination of practitioner and scholarly work. Thanks to my sport I can completely switch off for a few hours a week.

So I am not only training to get physically stronger and break world records, I am training to take care of myself both now and later. I am now in better shape than ever. I am stronger, feel calmer, the best is really that my training, discipline and determination gives me the ability to face better everything that life might throw at me!

Last Friday my PhD (Business) graduation took place. The PhD graduation ceremony in Trinity College is called commencements, to indicate that the completion of the studies is not the end, but a new beginning. For me it certainly is a new beginning. Beside my service operations manager role in Trinity I now teach undergraduate students in Fundamentals of Management and Organisation. I thoroughly enjoy this additional role, as I can talk about my experience of being a manager and give examples of the relevance of academic articles and textbooks. . Even though weather-wise it probably was the worst day of the year, cold, stormy and rain from all sides, nothing could dampen the joy of the day, the beginning of a new journey!